jdbob:Just got back from New Zealand. Coins are 0.10, 0.20, 0.50, 1.00, and 2.00. Bills are $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, etc. They rationalized their currency a number of years back. Not expecting anything rational in the U.S., it's un-american.

Rational would imply using bills for the $1 and $2 denominations -- paper for the left of the decimal, coins for the right.

whatshisname:Traveling in the states, I'm always amazed at how thick my wallet gets with $1 bills. You don't even have $2 bills so the singles add up quickly. And then there's the fact that all your bills look pretty much the same so trying to find a $20 in the middle of a wad of $US is more difficult than it should be. The hint of colour they've added to bills is nice.

You don't keep the cash in your wallet in order? I never understood how people had trouble with American money, what with the giant numerals printed all over it. It's odd to me that people have less trouble remembering the value of pink versus yellow versus blue than remembering the value of 5 versus 10 versus 20.

whatshisname:Traveling in the states, I'm always amazed at how thick my wallet gets with $1 bills. You don't even have $2 bills so the singles add up quickly. And then there's the fact that all your bills look pretty much the same so trying to find a $20 in the middle of a wad of $US is more difficult than it should be. The hint of colour they've added to bills is nice.

Eh, with our bills all you have to do is look at a corner to see what the denomination is. With Canadian and certain European bills, you have to rely on the shape, color, and artistry on the bill to figure it out. It's like, ok, I want to buy a coffee, will that cost the postcard-sized pink bill with a griffon on it, or the playing-card sized blue bill with what looks to be Geraldo Rivera's face on it?

skinink:Those of you who want to keep the dollar bill should never travel to any European country. You'd see their currency, and the trauma would cause you to collapse in a puddle of your own pee. I like the coins better, because there's less issues of the coins jamming upa machine as opposed to the paper money, and it's not a big deal carrying around coins.

Euros would be nicer if they were a consistent size -- the larger notes are too damn big (physically large, that is).

Increase in circular skin impressions in the shape of said dollar coins on stripper skin

Or clubs issuing and accepting their own bills like gambling chips at a casino.This would also allow them to screw over both customers and strippers by charging a percentage for changing their in-house monopoly money back into real money.

Acharne:Everything you typed is likely untrue. Most of it is definitely only opinion. Some of it is just pretty silly.

Please see the comments below and above yours. Namely, fark coins, fark coins, oh, and also fark coins. Just try passing a golden dollar off on anyone if you work a retail register - I dare you. The looks of apprehension and disgust will make you think you just shat yourself. Maybe a few people in this thread are all "oooh! new currency that's both shiny and durable! how COOL!" but not a single person in my experience has ever wanted one over something they could stuff in with the rest of their real money.

mvl9591:Machines dispense almost all of the metro cards used in the NYC subways. If the dollar bin is full, they stop taking dollar bills and will only take coins (but not one cent coins). The "gold" dollar coins given as change are really grungy. Most of the color is gone. They corrode, turn black. They are worn almost smooth. The coins are not durable.

I can destroy a paper bill in about half a second while counting a stack of them by accident. never seen a teller rip a coin in half by accident. not to mention the fact people still pay me with coins from 20+ years ago.

so whats your point other then subways are dirty and filled with breaking dust from trains?

In so many ways, the US of A is a completely backward country. The Metric System is just a start. How about the typewriter keyboard? While the USA was the first country with a base ten monetary system, if you have ever used the Euro, the logic seems obvious. The bigger the value, the larger the bill. This helps blind people. And the basic color is different, which helps the nearly blind, and stupid people.

Here is a plan. Get rid of the $0.01 coin. When a pack of gum costs $1.25, what is the use of the penny?

Get rid of fractions, completely. Go Metric! I bought some serious fungicide to spray on some apple trees. The recipe, the directions in English, were in teaspoons per gallon. The container I found was a two-liter bottle. I felt like some one in the Middle Ages. I tried to read the directions in French. What the heck is a teaspoon? I am a coffee drinker.

And the USA does not have single payer health care. Does any American ever think about the phrase: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? May I translate that phrase? Life is the biosphere. Liberty is politics. The Pursuit of Happiness is the economy. It is a hierarchy. You cannot rearrange those original words without making complete nonsense.

The people in the USA have completely forgotten their roots. To change the address of my local newspaper delivery, I found myself talking to a woman in Honduras. And we are still using inches. Fools get what they deserve.

meanmutton:whatshisname: Traveling in the states, I'm always amazed at how thick my wallet gets with $1 bills. You don't even have $2 bills so the singles add up quickly. And then there's the fact that all your bills look pretty much the same so trying to find a $20 in the middle of a wad of $US is more difficult than it should be. The hint of colour they've added to bills is nice.

You don't keep the cash in your wallet in order? I never understood how people had trouble with American money, what with the giant numerals printed all over it. It's odd to me that people have less trouble remembering the value of pink versus yellow versus blue than remembering the value of 5 versus 10 versus 20.

I don't have to see the front (or back) of any bill in my pocket (or wallet) to know the denomination. I can tell by a glance. Not so with US $$$.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom:whatshisname: Traveling in the states, I'm always amazed at how thick my wallet gets with $1 bills. You don't even have $2 bills so the singles add up quickly. And then there's the fact that all your bills look pretty much the same so trying to find a $20 in the middle of a wad of $US is more difficult than it should be. The hint of colour they've added to bills is nice.

Eh, with our bills all you have to do is look at a corner to see what the denomination is. With Canadian and certain European bills, you have to rely on the shape, color, and artistry on the bill to figure it out. It's like, ok, I want to buy a coffee, will that cost the postcard-sized pink bill with a griffon on it, or the playing-card sized blue bill with what looks to be Geraldo Rivera's face on it?

Eh, with Australia's colour-coded and differently-sized bills, all you have to know is which denomination is which colour to see what the denomination is AND blind people can tell which is which by size.

3. DON'T MAKE THE FARKING DOLLAR COIN VIRTUALLY GODDAMN IDENTICAL TO THE QUARTER.

4. Get rid of pennies and teach people to round.

tl;dr - crib off of Canada

Aye to 1 & 4. #2 we've already got taken care of... you have to think that's *why* we've got a billion of them stockpiled. As for #3? Our dollar coin is already virtually goddamn identical to the Canadian dollar coin. And they don't have a problem.

Yes, and it's also virtually identical to the US Quarter, which confuses people and annoys them when they have to inspect their coins to make sure they have the right one.

Make the dollar coin easily distinguishable from other denominations, and it will be less of a problem. I thought the Sackie would be fine for that, being a different color and all, but they didn't get rid of the dollar bill so it flopped. I would have loved to see it succeed.

HumanBeingsSuck:The problem with the U.S. $1 Coin is, it is very very similar in size, weight, and thickness to a quarter-dollar coin. When you're sorting your change, you don't want to have to carefully check your quarters to make sure they're not actually dollars. All they have to do is change the size and thickness of the $1 coin, and people would adopt it.

It doesn't even matter that we don't use a proper Metric progression (we should have a 2c coin and a 20c coin instead of the quarter). The killer is the similarity in size, thickness, and weight between a quarter-dollar coin and a dollar coin.

There's a good reason I say you're wrong on that, even though it's obviously a subjective matter.

That is... the US brass dollar coin is the exact same size/thickness as the Canadian loonie dollar coin (the US version weighs a tiny bit more). You generally can use US brass dollars in Canadian vending machines, and I've even found them in rolls of loonies.

Exactly not a single person in Canada has said, in about 20 years, "this coin is just too much like a quarter". Not the drunkest blind drunk on George Street gets his loonies and quarters mixed up.

Susan B Anthonies? Fine. Sacagawea/Presidents? Are you saying the Canadians are just smarter than we are?

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom:whatshisname: Traveling in the states, I'm always amazed at how thick my wallet gets with $1 bills. You don't even have $2 bills so the singles add up quickly. And then there's the fact that all your bills look pretty much the same so trying to find a $20 in the middle of a wad of $US is more difficult than it should be. The hint of colour they've added to bills is nice.

Eh, with our bills all you have to do is look at a corner to see what the denomination is. With Canadian and certain European bills, you have to rely on the shape, color, and artistry on the bill to figure it out. It's like, ok, I want to buy a coffee, will that cost the postcard-sized pink bill with a griffon on it, or the playing-card sized blue bill with what looks to be Geraldo Rivera's face on it?

Interesting... I just looked at the bills in my wallet, and oddly, every bill was the same size, and had the denomination on the corner, so we must be talking about another Canada.

My main issue with the coins for smaller denominations is that I empty my pocket into a coin bin when I get home, and with $1 and $2 coins, that means said bin can be holding a lot of cash without me noticing.

(Worst instance was dragging over $1400 in rolled coins to the bank, and having to explain where it came from...)

The problem with the U.S. $1 Coin is, it is very very similar in size, weight, and thickness to a quarter-dollar coin. When you're sorting your change, you don't want to have to carefully check your quarters to make sure they're not actually dollars. All they have to do is change the size and thickness of the $1 coin, and people would adopt it.

It doesn't even matter that we don't use a proper Metric progression (we should have a 2c coin and a 20c coin instead of the quarter). The killer is the similarity in size, thickness, and weight between a quarter-dollar coin and a dollar coin.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom:whatshisname: Traveling in the states, I'm always amazed at how thick my wallet gets with $1 bills. You don't even have $2 bills so the singles add up quickly. And then there's the fact that all your bills look pretty much the same so trying to find a $20 in the middle of a wad of $US is more difficult than it should be. The hint of colour they've added to bills is nice.

Eh, with our bills all you have to do is look at a corner to see what the denomination is. With Canadian and certain European bills, you have to rely on the shape, color, and artistry on the bill to figure it out. It's like, ok, I want to buy a coffee, will that cost the postcard-sized pink bill with a griffon on it, or the playing-card sized blue bill with what looks to be Geraldo Rivera's face on it?

It's important to make the high value notes big, so you can see at a distance how rich the person is when he whips it out. When a guy pulls what looks like sheet of gaudily-printed typing paper out of his wallet, you know that guy's loaded.

jshine:whatshisname: You don't even have $2 bills so the singles add up quickly.

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Tried to use one of those in Utah in about 1978 and the cashier jumped back like it was a rattlesnake. She took it but set it aside in some special pile for "weird money" like it was covered in Ebola or something.

Those of you who want to keep the dollar bill should never travel to any European country. You'd see their currency, and the trauma would cause you to collapse in a puddle of your own pee. I like the coins better, because there's less issues of the coins jamming upa machine as opposed to the paper money, and it's not a big deal carrying around coins.

Traveling in the states, I'm always amazed at how thick my wallet gets with $1 bills. You don't even have $2 bills so the singles add up quickly. And then there's the fact that all your bills look pretty much the same so trying to find a $20 in the middle of a wad of $US is more difficult than it should be. The hint of colour they've added to bills is nice.

12349876:Ditch the penny and nickel too and you wouldn't have to worry about dealing with more coins. When the USA ditched the half penny shortly after the Civil War, it had more purchasing power than a dime today.

I've got an old British half-penny around here somewhere. It's so small and thin you could accidentally inhale it.

Ditch the penny and nickel too and you wouldn't have to worry about dealing with more coins. When the USA ditched the half penny shortly after the Civil War, it had more purchasing power than a dime today.